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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Towards the end of 2013 I attempted to finish all the books I had on the go before the new year. Although I made a real dent in the overwhelming number of partial finished books I didn't reach my goal of finishing them all. Which is disappointing. I like to start fresh each year from the first day of January onwards.

With starting fresh I was excited to participate in the Bout of Books 9.0 read-a-thon. But now I have decided to not participate in that either. You are probably thinking, wouldn't a read-a-thon help to finish up those loose ends to get closer to that fresh start faster? It might or it might not. In my case I am currently trying to finish Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran, a book I have been reading on and off (more off than on) since Feb. 5, 2012. Which may be the book I've been "reading" for the longest amount of time in all my years of reading. Which is absolutely ridiculous to me. It isn't that it isn't interesting I just find that the smaller print and my complete lack of knowledge of the French revolution has slowed my progress. This is therefore not the type of book I would generally choose for a read-a-thon and if I did choose it I fear I would get discouraged as I wouldn't be able to reach/maintain a page count per day that I'd be satisfied with.

So I say no thank you to 9.0 but look forward to the next one as I plan to be ready to participate by then. I better be. I look forward to following along however during 9.0 so see how others are doing and to wish them all the best!

This delay in clearing out my "currently reading" shelf has also left me in a quandary of what reading goals and challenges I want to complete in 2014. For the last 3 or so years I attempted to read one book for each letter of the alphabet by corresponding with the initial letter of its title. Each year I got close but never successfully completed this challenge, despite reading over 26 books each year. So I just don't know if this will be my lucky year where I can complete it or whether it would be better to try a new challenge all together. My mind is so conflicted.